Physics Commons^™

Development Of An Integrated Workflow For Nucleosome Modeling And Simulations, Ran Sun

Doctoral Dissertations

Nucleosomes are the building blocks of eukaryotic genomes and thus fundamental to to all genetic processes. Any protein or drug that binds DNA must either cooperate or compete with nucleosomes. Given that a nucleosome contains 147 base pairs of DNA, there are approximately 4^147 or 10^88 possible sequences for a single nucleosome. Exhaustive studies are not possible. However, genome wide association studies can identify individual nucleosomes of interest to a specific mechanism, and today's supercomputers enable comparative simulation studies of 10s to 100s of nucleosomes. The goal of this thesis is to develop and present and end-to-end workflow that serves …

Multi-Scale Computational Modeling Of Metal/Ceramic Interfaces, Abu Shama Mohammad Miraz

Master's Theses

Multi-scale atomistic calculations were carried out to understand the interfacial features that dictate the mechanical integrity of the metal/ceramic nanolaminates. As such, first principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to understand the electronic and atomistic factors governing adhesion and resistance to shear for simple metal/ceramic interfaces, whereas molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed to observe the impact of interfacial structures, such as misfit dislocation network geometries and orientation relationships, on interfacial mechanical properties.

For the DFT investigation, we choose metals with different crystal structures, namely - Cu (fcc), Cr (bcc) and Ti (hcp) along with a variety of …

Multi-Scale Computational Modeling Of Metal/Ceramic Interfaces, Abu Shama Mohammad Miraz

Doctoral Dissertations

Multi-scale atomistic calculations were carried out to understand the interfacial features that dictate the mechanical integrity of the metal/ceramic nanolaminates. As such, first principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed to understand the electronic and atomistic factors governing adhesion and resistance to shear for simple metal/ceramic interfaces, whereas molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed to observe the impact of interfacial structures, such as misfit dislocation network geometries and orientation relationships, on interfacial mechanical properties.

For the DFT investigation, we choose metals with different crystal structures, namely - Cu (fcc), Cr (bcc) and Ti (hcp) along with a variety of …

A Novel Method For Computations Of Ratios Of Jet Cross Sections In Perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics, Connor Waits

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

The strong interaction is the force responsible for binding quarks to form hadrons, such as protons and neutrons, and also for binding protons and neutrons to form the nuclei of atoms. The properties of the strong interaction can be studied in particle collisions from measurements of the production rates of collimated sprays of particles, called jets. In particular, the ratio of the number of collisions that produce three jets over the number of collisions that produce two jets is a direct measure of the strength of the strong interaction. This strength is quantified by the strong coupling constant, αs. Determinations …

The Parity-Violating Asymmetry In The N→Δ Transition At Low Q2, Thamraa A. Alshayeb

Doctoral Dissertations

Qweak has used the parity violating asymmetry to test the Standard Model (SM) by constantly flipping helicity states of a longitudinally polarized electron beam that scatters in the unpolarized LH2 target. The main focus of the Qweak experiment at Jefferson Lab was the recently published determination of the proton’s weak charge. In order to make corrections to the measured asymmetry at low 𝑄 2 due to inelastically scattered electrons, dedicated measurements were made of the parity violating asymmetry in the N→∆ transition at two different beam energies.

The measured inelastic asymmetries are used to extract the low energy constant dΔ, …

A Framework Of Multi-Dimensional And Multi-Scale Modeling With Applications, Zilong Li

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, a framework for multi-dimensional and multi-scale modeling is proposed. The essential idea is based on oriented space curves, which can be represented as a 3D slender object or 1D step parameters. SMILES and Masks provide functionalities that extend slender objects into branched and other objects. We treat the conversion between 1D, 2D, 3D, and 4D representations as data unification. A mathematical analysis of different methods applied to helices (a special type of space curves) is also provided. Computational implementation utilizes Model-ViewController design principles to integrate data unification with graphical visualizations to create a dashboard. Applications of multi-dimensional …

A Multicarrier Technique For Monte Carlo Simulation Of Electrothermal Transport In Nanoelectronics, Tyler J. Spence

Doctoral Dissertations

The field of microelectronics plays an important role in many areas of engineering and science, being ubiquitous in aerospace, industrial manufacturing, biotechnology, and many other fields. Today, many micro- and nanoscale electronic devices are integrated into one package. e capacity to simulate new devices accurately is critical to the engineering design process, as device engineers use simulations to predict performance characteristics and identify potential issues before fabrication. A problem of particular interest is the simulation of devices which exhibit exotic behaviors due to non-equilibrium thermodynamics and thermal effects such as self-heating. Frequently, it is desirable to predict the level of …

Monte Carlo Simulations Of Electrothermal Transport In Nanoelectronics, T. J. Spence

Science Seminars

The field of microelectronics plays an important role in many areas of engineering and science, being ubiquitous in aerospace, industrial manufacturing, biotechnology, and many other fields. The capacity to simulate new devices accurately is critical to the engineering design process, as device engineers use simulations to predict performance characteristics and identify potential issues before fabrication. In this talk, a Monte Carlo technique is presented for solving the classical Boltzmann Transport Equation, Poisson’s and Schrödinger’s equations for electrons and phonons.

Increasing The Functionality Of Additive Manufacturing Through Atmospheric Microplasma And Nanotechnology, Alexander Jon Ulrich

Doctoral Dissertations

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has been changing the manufacturing landscape for the last 20 years. As the interest and demand for both polymer and metal-based 3D printing has grown, the materials and machines used have increased in capabilities. Despite the growth and advancement, there are still a large number of improvements that can be made to add functionality to 3D printers. Metal AM, a subcategory of 3D printing, has garnered much attention among industrial applications with large companies such as General Electric trying to implement the technology to increase innovative designs for motors. Some of the limitations on AM have to …

Semiclassically Modeling Hydrogen At Rydberg States Immersed In Electromagnetic Fields, Jaron Williams

Mathematics Senior Capstone Papers

Originally, closed-orbit theory was developed in order to analyze oscillations in the near ionization threshold (Rydberg) densities of states for atoms in strong external electric and magnetic fields. Oscillations in the density of states were ascribed to classical orbits that began and ended near the atom. In essence, observed outgoing waves following the classical path return and interfere with original outgoing waves, giving rise to oscillations. Elastic scattering from one closed orbit to another gives additional oscillations in the cross-section. This study examines how quantum theory can be properly used in combination with classical orbit theory in order to study …

Albert Abraham Michelson, "Velocity Of Light"., University Archives And Special Collections, Prescott Memorial Library, Louisiana Tech University

Manuscript Finding Aids

Facsimile of Michelson's handwritten paper "Experimental Determination of the Velocity of Light", his seminal work in Physics in 1878.

Effective Magnetic And Electric Response Of Composite Materials, Mona Hassan Alsaleh

Doctoral Dissertations

Metamaterials (MMs) are nanocomposite materials consisting of metal-dielectric resonators much smaller in size than the wavelength of the incident light. Common examples of metamaterials are based on split ring resonators (SRRs), parallel wires or strips and fishnet structures. These types of materials are designed and fabricated in order to provide unique optical responses to the incident electromagnetic radiation that are not available in naturally existing materials. The MMs can exhibit unusual properties such as strong magnetism at terahertz (THz) and optical frequencies. Additionally, negative index materials (NIMs) can provide negative index of refraction which can be used in many applications …

Electromagnetic Wave-Matter Interactions In Complex Opto-Electronic Materials And Devices, Raj Kumar Vinnakota

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the fundamentals of light-matter interaction towards applications in the field of Opto-electronic and plasmonic devices. In its core, this dissertation attempts and succeeds in the the modeling of light-matter interactions, which is of high importance for better understanding the rich physics underlying the dynamics of electromagnetic field interactions with charged particles. Here, we have developed a self-consistent multi-physics model of electromagnetism, semiconductor physics and thermal effects which can be readily applied to the field of plasmotronics and Selective Laser Melting (SLM). Plasmotronics; a sub-field of photonics has experienced a renaissance in recent years by providing a large …

Experimental Investigation And Numerical Simulation Of A Copper Micro-Channel Heat Exchanger With Hfe-7200 Working Fluid, Eric Borquist

Doctoral Dissertations

Ever increasing cost and consumption of global energy resources has inspired the development of energy harvesting techniques which increase system efficiency, sustainability, and environmental impact by using waste energy otherwise lost to the surroundings. As part of a larger effort to produce a multi-energy source prototype, this study focused on the fabrication and testing of a waste heat recovery micro-channel heat exchanger. Reducing cost and facility requirements were a priority for potential industry and commercial adoption of such energy harvesting devices. During development of the micro-channel heat exchanger, a new fabrication process using mature technologies was created that reduced cost, …

Electromagnetic Properties Of Metal-Dielectric Media And Their Applications, Shravan Rakesh Animilli

Doctoral Dissertations

The main objective of this dissertation is to investigate nano-structured random composite materials, which exhibit anomalous phenomena, such as the extraordinary enhancements of linear and non-linear optical processes due to excitation of collective electronic states, surface plasmons (SP). The main goal is to develop a time and memory efficient novel numerical method to study the properties of these random media in three dimensions (3D) by utilization of multi core processing and packages such as MPI for parallel execution. The developed numerical studies are then utilized to provide a comprehensive characterization and optimization of a surface plasmon enhanced solar cell (SPESC) …

Tunable Controlled Release Of Molecular Species From Halloysite Nanotubes, Divya Narayan Elumalai

Doctoral Dissertations

Encouraged by potential applications in rust coatings, self-healing composites, selective delivery of drugs, and catalysis, the transport of molecular species through Halloysite nanotubes (HNTs), specifically the storage and controlled release of these molecules, has attracted strong interest in recent years. HNTs are a naturally occurring biocompatible nanomaterial that are abundantly and readily available. They are alumosilicate based tubular clay nanotubes with an inner lumen of 15 nm and a length of 600-900 nm. The size of the inner lumen of HNTs may be adjusted by etching. The lumen can be loaded with functional agents like antioxidants, anticorrosion agents, flame-retardant agents, …

Studies Of Angular Correlations Of Jets With The Atlas Detector, Rajivalochan Subramaniam

Doctoral Dissertations

The strong force is one of the four fundamental forces and its strength is given by the coupling constant αs. The theory that describes the strong interaction is Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and it explains the interactions between quarks and gluons. The strong coupling constant is the only free parameter in the QCD Lagrangian if the quark masses are fixed. Determinations of αs provide direct tests of perturbative QCD calculations. The collimated sprays of particles originating from the quark and gluon interactions are called jets. The ratio of jet cross sections are sensitive to α s and are …

Quantum Levitation Using Metamaterials, Venkatesh K. Pappakrishnan

Doctoral Dissertations

The emergence of an attractive vacuum force (Casimir force) between two purely dielectric materials can lead to an increase in the friction and the stiction effects in nanoscale devices, resulting in degradation or decreased performance. Thus, it is of high practical importance that the conditions for the reversal of the Casimir force from attractive to repulsive are identified. Although the repulsive Casimir force has been considered for high dielectric materials as an intermediate (between the plates) medium, so far no realistic system has been proposed that can demonstrate quantum levitation with air/vacuum as a host medium. Since air is the …

On Electromagnetic And Quantum Invisibility, Pattabhiraju Chowdary Mundru

Doctoral Dissertations

The principle objective of this dissertation is to investigate the fundamental properties of electromagnetic wave interactions with artificially fabricated materials i.e., metamaterials for application in advanced stealth technology called electromagnetic cloaking. The main goal is to theoretically design a metamaterial shell around an object that completely eliminates the dipolar and higher order multipolar scattering, thus making the object invisible.

In this context, we developed a quasi-effective medium theory that determines the optical properties of multi-layered-composites beyond the quasi-static limit. The proposed theory exactly reproduces the far-field scattering/extinction cross sections through an iterative process in which mode-dependent quasi-effective impedances of the …

Numerical Solutions For Problems With Complex Physics In Complex Geometry, Yifan Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, two high order accurate numerical methods, Spectral Element Method (SEM) and Discontinuous Galerkin method (DG), are discussed and investigated. The advantages of both methods and their applicable areas are studied. Particular problems in complex geometry with complex physics are investigated and their high order accurate numerical solutions obtained by using either SEM or DG are presented. Furthermore, the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) (a mesh-free weighted interpolation method) is implemented on graphics processing unit (GPU). Some numerical simulations of the complex flow with a free surface are presented and discussed to show the advantages of SPH method in …

Measurement Of [Special Characters Omitted] (Pp[Special Characters Omitted]Tt) In The[Special Characters Omitted]+ Jets Channel Using 4.7 Fb-1 Of Data From The Atlas Experiment Of The Large Hadron Collider, Anirvan Sircar

Doctoral Dissertations

The top quark is the heaviest of the known elementary particles in the Standard Model. Top quark decay can result into various final states; therefore, careful study of its production rate and other properties is very important for particle physics. With the shutdown of the Tevatron, The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the only facility currently capable of studying top quark properties. The data obtained by proton-proton collisions in the LHC is recorded by two general purpose detectors, ATLAS and CMS. The results in the dissertation are from the ATLAS detector. A new measurement is reported of &sgr;(pp [special …

The Measurement Of The Dielectric Constant Of Concrete Pipes And Clay Pipes, David Mcgraw

Doctoral Dissertations

To optimize the effectiveness of the rehabilitation of underground utilities, taking in consideration limitation of available resources, there is a need for a cost effective and efficient sensing systems capable of providing effective, in real time and in situ, measurement of infrastructural characteristics. To carry out accurate non-destructive condition assessment of buried and above ground infrastructure such as sewers, bridges, pavements and dams, an advanced ultra-wideband (UWB) based radar was developed at Trenchless Technology Centre (TTC) and Centre for Applied Physics Studies (CAPS) at Louisiana Tech University (LTU). One of the major issues in designing the FCC compliant UWB radar …

Generalized Finite-Difference Time-Domain Schemes For Solving Nonlinear Schrödinger Equations, Frederick Ira Moxley Iii

Doctoral Dissertations

The nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE) is one of the most widely applicable equations in physical science, and characterizes nonlinear dispersive waves, optics, water waves, and the dynamics of molecules. The NLSE satisfies many mathematical conservation laws. Moreover, due to the nonlinearity, the NLSE often requires a numerical solution, which also satisfies the conservation laws. Some of the more popular numerical methods for solving the NLSE include the finite difference, finite element, and spectral methods such as the pseudospectral, split-step with Fourier transform, and integrating factor coupled with a Fourier transform. With regard to the finite difference and finite element methods, …

Study Of Jet Transverse Momentum And Jet Rapidity Dependence Of Dijet Azimuthal Decorrelations With The Dø Detector, Kiran Chakravarthula

Doctoral Dissertations

In a collision experiment involving highly energetic particles such as hadrons, processes at high momentum transfers can provide information useful for many studies involving Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). One way of analyzing these interactions is through angular distributions. In hadron-hadron collisions, the angular distribution between the two leading jets with the largest transverse momentum (pT) is affected by the production of additional jets. While soft radiation causes small differences in the azimuthal angular distribution of the two leading jets produced in a collision event, additional hard jets produced in the event have more pronounced influence on the distribution of …

The Study Of Pt Dependence Of Dijet Azimuthal Decorrelations In Proton-Proton Collision At Center Of Mass Energy = 7 Tev, Ramasudhakar Dhullipudi

Doctoral Dissertations

The transverse momentum (pT) dependence of azimuthal decorrelations in dijet events is studied with data collected, at an integrated luminosity of [special characters omitted] dt = (36 ± 4) pb−1, from collisions between protons at a center of mass energy of [special characters omitted] = 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The results of the analysis of jets in a central rapidity of |y| < 0.8 and pT in the range 60 GeV < pT < 1200 GeV are presented. A new observable RΔ&phis;, defined as the fraction of the total dijet cross section corresponding to a particular range of …

Event Shapes In Proton-Proton Collisions At Center Of Mass Energy = 1.96 Tev, Scott Atkins

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents the analysis of nine different event shapes measured in high energy pp¯ collisions. An event shape can be defined as an event-based quantity that measures how the final energies are distributed in the final event. This analysis will test strong interactions as described by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), through their implementation in different Monte Carlo-based models. Each of the event shapes provides information about the flow of energy in QCD events and about the hadronic final states that occur in pp¯ particle collisions, thus allowing the study of the dynamics of QCD multijet events. Any deviation of an …

A Finite Difference Method For Studying Thermal Deformation In Three-Dimensional Thin Films Exposed To Ultrashort Pulsed Lasers, Suyang Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

Thermal analysis related to ultrashort-pulsed lasers has been intensely studied in science and engineering communities in recent years, because the pulse duration of ultrashort-pulsed lasers is only the order of sub-picoseconds to femtoseconds, and the lasers have exclusive capabilities in limiting the undesirable spread of the thermal process zone in the heated sample. Studying the thermal deformation induced by ultrashort-pulsed lasers is essential for preventing thermal damage. For the ultrashort-pulsed laser, the thermal damage is different from that caused by the long pulsed lasers and cracks occur after heating.

This dissertation presents a new finite difference method for studying thermal …

Development Of A High Spatial Selectivity Tri-Polar Concentric Ring Electrode For Laplacian Electroencephalography (Leeg) System, Kanthaiah Koka

Doctoral Dissertations

Brain activity generates electrical potentials that are spatio-temporal in nature. Electroencephalography (EEG) is the least costly and most widely used non-invasive technique for diagnosing many brain problems. It has high temporal resolution but lacks high spatial resolution.

The surface Laplacian will enhance the spatial resolution of EEG as it performs the second spatial derivative of the surface potentials. In an attempt to increase the spatial selectivity, researchers introduced a bipolar electrode configuration using a five point finite difference method (FPM) and others applied a quasi-bipolar (tri-polar with two elements shorted) concentric electrode configuration. To further increase the spatial resolution, the …

Developing A B -Tagging Algorithm Using Soft Muons At Level-3 For The Dø Detector At Fermilab, Mayukh Das

Doctoral Dissertations

The current data-taking phase of the DØ detector at Fermilab, called Run II, is designed to aid the search for the Higgs Boson. The neutral Higgs is postulated to have a mass of 117 GeV. One of the channels promising the presence of this hypothetical particle is through the decay of b-quark into a muon. The process of identifying a b-quark in a jet using muon as a reference is b-tagging with a muon tag.

At the current data taking and analysis rate, it will take long to reach the process of identifying valid events. The triggering mechanism of the …

Study Of Energy Sampling Weights In The Dø Detector Using Multiparameter Fitting Method, Qun Yu

Doctoral Dissertations

The DØ calorimeter at Fermilab is a sampling calorimeter measuring the energy of particles produced in high energy proton-antiproton collisions. A set of accurate sampling weights is of significant importance to DØ research activity. The objective of this work was to obtain a set of optimized sampling weights for the DØ central calorimeter, the Inter-Cryostat Detector (ICD), the Central Calorimeter Massless Gap (CCMG), and the End Calorimeter Massless Gap (ECMG).

The foundation of the optimization method is that, in high energy physics, the ratio of energy E and the corresponding momentum P of a particle is approximately 1, in units …